Cupertino is already testing apps on what appears to be next-gen hardware.

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Developers are already seeing evidence that apps are being tested on a next-generation iPhone running the next major revision of iOS, just months after the release of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6. That Apple is developing and testing updates to its iPhone hardware and software is no surprise, but the timing suggests that the updates may come earlier than expected.

According to developers who spoke to The Next Web, references to an "iPhone6,1" running iOS 7 have appeared in usage logs for their apps. The current iPhone 5 has model identifiers "iPhone5,1" or "iPhone5,2" depending on which frequencies the LTE radio works. An "iPhone6,1" device would be a major revision to the iPhone hardware according to Apple's model-identifier scheme. These device and OS identifiers were linked to IP addresses in Apple's assigned IP block.

These early references to new hardware and software aren't uncommon—Ars spotted similar references to Retina-like devices running iOS 6 just a week before Apple announced the iPad 3, for instance. But the fact that Apple is already testing apps on new hardware and software indicates that Apple may be readying the next iPhone for sale earlier than the fall time frame in which it launched the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4S before it.

Though we saw our first references to iOS 6 in Web analytics logs in March 2012—three months before Apple gave developers the first access to iOS 6 betas at its Worldwide Developers Conference—9to5Mac reported that developers started seeing iOS 6 in usage logs in May 2012—just a month before its public unveiling. It seems possible that Apple could show iOS 7 to the public in or around February, with a new iPhone coming in June. That would track with earlier iPhone device launches, which until 2011 happened during the northern hemisphere summer.

At least one analyst—Topeka Capital Markets' Brian White—is predicting that Apple will release a new model in May or June. This is in line with speculation that Apple may be accelerating the pace of product development in order to better compete with competitors that release multiple new devices per year. It is believed that the quick update from iPad 3 to iPad 4 is the first visible sign of this acceleration.